The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Another Day, Another $36.95

They seem to be promising rain, which will gratify the flowers. Unfortunately, I have a very large (folded-flat) cardboard box and a big paper leaf-bag full of lawn clippings to get properly stowed before the skies open up, so that just got added to my morning task stack.

Ah, but the flowers...! I need to add photos, but the old square raised bed in the front yard that I cleaned up and sowed with "mixed wildflower" seeds, former location of a former tree, is really coming into its own. A row of maroon-and-yellow marigolds led off, followed by little white flowers and for awhile, I thought that was all there was. Recently, some fuzzy purple blooms have popped up along with a couple of lovely, delicate pink blossoms that look like (but are not) what we called "wild rose" when I was growing up. There are plenty of buds that haven't opened to look forward to, as well.

There's also a rosemary plant in that bed. We managed to keep one going for several years there (and added twigs from the dead bush to the coals in the grill for years after) and perhaps this one will last as long. So far, the weed barrier cloth I put down is working; there are one or two plants in the bed that I'm giving the hairy eyeball and which will get the old heave-ho if they turn out to be deadbeats, but considering that two years ago, before I tarped it for an entire year, that flowerbed was solid weeds, I'm not unhappy. Elsewhere, the daylilies are doing all right -- they're pretty much on their own, though the ones along the house may get a little help this year -- and the hostas continue to prosper. Like the orange lilies, they came with the house; unlike them, they didn't "just happen." The realtor had transplanted extras from her own yard, and expressed uncertainty how they'd do over the long term. Coming up on ten years and still going -- they were even completely dug up and lived in big pots for a few months when I had the house painted. That move paid dividends: there were enough plants to divide up and add another group of hostas to the bed on the other side of the front steps. There's mint growing there, too; I'd like to grow a little more but I'm happy to have it.

I'll be happier if I get the paper products taken care of before the rains arrive, though. Time to start back at it!

"I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."